I've always been good when it comes to artistic things. Seriously. When I was growing up, it didn't matter what it was, paper, pencil, ink, paint, cardboard, you name it. If you could draw or paint on it or fold and reshape it, I probably used it to turn it into some thing else. In fact, I managed to get straight "A"s in art from kindergarten through grade and high school, and yes, even college. And, while I graduated from the University of Akron in 2009 with a degree in Mass Media Communications, I still retain a certain amount of ability when it comes to things of an artistic nature.
Somewhere along the way, I discovered that music or more to the point, songs, were a way to create something out of seemingly nothing. Once I got the hang of how to organize my musical ideas, I couldn't get enough. It's been like using my mind as a canvas to construct the intangible and then bring it into the world of the physical by way of writing it down.
When I got my first chance to record my ideas, things changed a bit. Learning the language of music seemed to slow the process. That's when I began to pick up instruments and fashion sounds as I heard them without regard for rules. This was fun at first, but then what would happen is, I'd get a great groove with no idea if words would even fit to what I had come up with. I spent a couple of years recording my writings in this way. It wasn't until I tried to relate my melodies from my mind to the instruments that I was playing. Not being a virtuoso on any particular one, left some of my tunes lacking in the beginning. But, a little formal piano took care of that in a hurry. Soon there after, I was going hunting for any little melody that passed through my head.
Over time, I've managed to bring the music to the words in a marriage that has not only been gratifying, but has won me an occasional compliment or two. Which, has led me into believing that I'm on the right track. If there has been a weak point, I think that it would be my singing. Which by the way seems to be what makes my songs work these days... go figure. Personally, I feel that I'm a work in progress. And now, being able to record and produce myself as I do so, I have an even greater opportunity to get everything I can from what I hear in my head.
The point of all of this, is that when a song or album is finished and ready to release to the world, it will go into the market place right along side countless other artists. After years of excepting that what I did with paint and paper was art, there are times when I don't feel the same when it comes to my music. The reason is simple. What makes it's way to the world is as close to what I imagined as possible, but the process of producing a record can be a tricky thing. So, the question then becomes, is it the performance, the arrangement, or the production that makes a piece of recorded music a work of art?
I'm sure that we've all heard a song or two on the radio and thought, "now there's no way that that one should get any air play," only to learn that it's a number one smash. Music is subjective, for sure, and I would say that it's true that most singer songwriters, bands, and musicians are creating sounds with meaning, even if only enough for their own tastes.
Radio is alive and well and not about to disappear anytime soon. However, whenever I'm online and I get a chance to stream some music, I'm always able to find something that sounds so good that I've got to hear it over and over again. I mean, folks whose stuff is more than worthy of air time over the terrestrial airwaves. Things with melody as well as rhythm and rhyme. Definitely worthy of being called art.
It just makes me wonder why it isn't possible to give more people a chance to learn that good music is alive and well and living online.
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